The effect of interferon gamma gene expression in human lung epithelial cells was studied in primary cultures of human epithelial cells. Functional genomic studies were carried out using an Affymetrix platform. Over 600 genes were found to be upregulated or downregulated at 24 hours. Cotreatment with dexamethazone inhibited expression of a variety of inflammatory and cell cycle genes induced by interferon gamma. A manuscript is in preparation.